The Dan Brown Enigma

by Graham A Thomas

  Robinson next claimed that Brown explored ideas in his novel that ‘George Washington and his friends adorned their capital city with Masonic symbolism, architecture and art. So what’s the reality?’

  George Washington hired French-born architect Pierre L’Enfant to design the new capital city as one that would rival the great European capitals. Brown, Robinson said, claims that L’Enfant was a Mason. Part of L’Enfant’s design included an elaborate street plan. ‘The original plan was designed in a grid shape. There are lots of stars exploding all over it,’ Robinson said. ‘In addition there are all these diagonal lines crisscrossing the grid as well. And if you look at it very closely shapes start to emerge out of it. Above the White House is a pentagram – Masonic. Between the White House and the Capitol a set square – really Masonic. Apex from the Capitol – super-Masonic. Some people say it is a deliberate attempt to imprint Masonic symbols onto the city.’

  Robinson next went to a top Washington architect to discuss the street plan and discovered that there is no hidden Masonic design at all. ‘Dan Brown got it wrong,’ Robinson said. ‘L’Enfant wasn’t a Mason and his plan for the city didn’t hide any Masonic secrets.’

  Robinson then turned his attention to the Washington Monument, the world’s tallest stone structure and supposedly a very potent Masonic symbol. ‘It harks back to ancient Egypt, as do so many Masonic rituals and myths.’ The architect of the Monument was a Mason, Robert Mills. The number five figures prominently in the obelisk and that is a very important Masonic number, Robinson told his viewers. The obelisk is 550 feet high with a base that is 55 feet by 55 feet.

  In the book Langdon and Katherine are in a cab tearing through the streets of Washington when Katherine shows Langdon the dollar bill ‘which is absolutely riddled with Masonic symbols. This unfinished pyramid is a massive Masonic symbol and above it an all-seeing eye that was such a big Masonic symbol that George Washington had one of these on his Masonic apron,’ Robinson continued. Brown, he said, claims the image of the pyramid is probably the most famous in the world. ‘The pyramid is one half of the Great Seal, America’s national emblem.’ The other side of the dollar shows an eagle that has 13 olive branches in its talons behind 13 stars and stripes.

  But when he went looking for answers Robinson was disappointed again. The 13, for example, stood for the 13 states of the time rather than being a Masonic symbol. The images on the dollar bill are not specifically Masonic but common images that could have been used by anyone. ‘While there is no doubt that DC was founded by a Freemason, most of the symbols in the city are nothing of the sort,’ said Robinson.

  The next stop on his quest was to investigate the claim by Brown that everyone has god-like powers but they are all dormant within us. In the book, Brown has the severed hand pointing up to a mural on the ceiling of the Rotunda. Known as The Apotheosis, it depicts a mythical moment when George Washington is transformed from man to god. ‘This could simply be veneration for the father of a new nation but Dan Brown thinks it’s much, much bigger,’ says Robinson.

  According to Robinson, Brown thinks the ancient mysteries can unlock vast untapped powers in the human mind. ‘This is the theme he returns to again and again,’ Robinson said. But this ancient knowledge, passed down through the generations, was lodged with a group of 17th-century British scientists such as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle. Brown claims the knowledge was so dangerous that these men were forced to create an underground society they called The Invisible College. So Robinson went from DC to the Oxford Museum of Physical Science, where the men of the Invisible College met.

  What Robinson discovered was that these highly intelligent, highly educated and high profile men were discussing medicine, astronomy, engineering, chemistry, microscopy and meteorology. ‘There was no occult tradition in them.’

  The more Robinson dug, the more he discovered that the Invisible College were not discussing the ancient mysteries or keeping ancient secrets, and that what Brown was offering was ‘a trainload of fantasy and a thimble full of fact’.

  Disappointed but in search of evidence of the power of thought, Robinson continued by looking at noetic science. ‘Dan Brown says that people can move solid objects just through their mind alone. Brown says that a focused thought can affect anything – the direction that fish swim round in a bowl, the manner cells split up in a Petri dish, the way a plant grows – but is this true or a little far-fetched?’

  To find out Robinson visited a research institute studying parapsychology. Brown claims in his book that this science is on the verge of a breakthrough, but Robinson found this science is only just scratching the surface.

  The institute has one random event generator and Robinson tested his mental abilities by pushing a needle into a green zone on the computer screen using just the power of his mind. The generator creates random numbers that move the needle in the direction of the number. Without using the computer, Robinson had to try to push the needle to the highest number using his mind, to try to override the computer. He is connected to the computer with diodes but the computer generates the numbers which Robinson has to change. He is told he will have to try this many times, probably more than a hundred.

  Sure enough he did have to do it more than a hundred times and his results were average. But Robinson knew that there have been some remarkable results in this area but nobody can explain why. ‘At the moment, they are just in the foothills and not about to come up with something world-shattering like Einstein, Newton or Galileo did,’ Robinson said. ‘That is the exact opposite of the way Dan Brown describes this science in his book. His noetic science just doesn’t stack up.’

  Next up was a trip back to Washington DC to investigate Brown’s claim that the laboratories of the Smithsonian Institute Support Centre, where Katherine Solomon did her work, are real. Brown claims in his book that the Support Centre is the cutting edge of noetic research, that it is a complex that houses the museum’s overspill collection and is located on the outskirts of Washington DC.

  Brown portrays Katherine Solomon as working in a sterile hangar known as Pod 5, which is ‘full of amazing machines like random event generators that help her to understand the incredibly powerful forces that lie latent in the human mind,’ Robinson said. ‘While Katherine is about to make some important scientific announcements that will change the course of human history, the baddie is outside trying to get in, determined to destroy her work at any cost.’

  What’s the reality? Robinson discovered that there is a Pod 5 and that inside there is a canoe, just as Brown mentions, and that the collection has a giant squid, but it is in another Pod. In the book Mal’akh attacks Katherine’s assistant, Trish, and throws her alive into a giant tank full of ethanol where the squid is. But the real tank in Pod 5 has an octopus, and the Pod is completely full, housing 25 million specimens.

  When Robinson asked the curator where the cube was that Katherine did her work in, he was told that there is no cube in Pod 5 and to make matters worse, the curator also tells him they do not do any research on noetic science. ‘This is a disaster,’ said Robinson. ‘It would seem that almost none of the things in Dan Brown’s book that we’ve investigated are not quite as factual as he makes out.’

  The final leg of his quest was to investigate Brown’s claim that the Masonic ranks are filled with powerful and influential men, and that if it was revealed that they take part in bizarre, secret rituals it would bring down the US government. To get an answer Robinson went to the House of the Temple and asked one of the highest-ranking Masons in the US, Brent Morris, how powerful the Masons really are.

  To Robinson’s dismay, Morris said that while they are very proud of the 14 Presidents who have been members, today ‘nearly all the Masons are from the middle class.’ Hundreds of years ago, Morris said, Freemasonry was feared by the church because the Masons promoted the ideas of ‘representative democracy, freedom of speech and universal education. Today we are the epitome of middle class.’ They are not par
t of a global plot.

  So Robinson found that at the end of his quest he was no wiser than when he’d started. ‘I’ve been frustrated at just about every turn,’ he said. ‘So what do I learn from the world’s fastest-selling novel of all time? Well, the monuments and the organisations may be real but as for the rituals and the science, I think he’s taking more than just a little bit of artistic licence there. I cannot find just one hint of ancient knowledge anywhere.’[293]

  So Robinson’s quest to confirm that the claims that Brown makes in his novel are real turned out to be a failure. Was it because Robinson didn’t do the research that Brown did or didn’t talk to the right people? Or is it possible that Brown is playing games with us all? Is he that kind of person?

  We know that his education at Phillips Exeter Academy shaped his view of the world. His education has instilled in him a need to succeed, to achieve, to always be curious, which he has bestowed on Langdon. The treasure hunts run by his parents every Christmas influenced him so much that each of his novels contain elements of treasure hunts and chases. There is always a goal that must be achieved. In Langdon’s world, as in Brown’s, there is no room for failure.

  Look at his musical career. He put everything he had into his music but at the end of the day it just wasn’t right for the time. Whether it was good or bad isn’t important. It just didn’t catch on – it didn’t have that spark, the X-factor if you will. Lesser men would have crawled away but Brown persevered because his education and upbringing gave him the grounding to always strive for better, to put everything into life, to be as successful as possible, to achieve.

  He only left the music scene after a contract for 187 Men to Avoid had been secured. But he was still teaching and writing at the same time. He could have walked away after publication of Deception Point after he saw how bad the sales were for all three of his earlier books. But he didn’t. As he stared at his blank screen realising his fourth novel had to be the breakthrough book – had to be the one that would enable him to write full time and make a living at it – he didn’t pack up and walk away.

  Instead, he began to write. Slowly at first, the letters and words coming in dribs and drabs onto the screen as he typed; as he and Blythe scoured the hundreds of research books, documents and files they’d amassed; as he looked at the hundreds of photographs they’d taken on their trips to Paris, London and Edinburgh. And when he’d finished writing, he’d turned out one of the most successful novels of all time.

  The question then is: if Dan Brown spends years researching his novels, how can he get the facts so wrong – or is the Fact page at the beginning of The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol part of his fiction? By now he must know that by putting a Fact page at the beginning of his novels he is inviting people to pick holes in his research and show him up to be mistaken, as Robinson’s quest showed. Only Brown can answer this.

  However, if we look at the Fact page in his books as being part of the story, part of the fiction, then perhaps we can see that Brown is playing a little joke on all of us. Whatever the answer, Dan Brown is an industry now. He is bigger than just about any author out there and there are dozens of people writing books and making a living off the novels he’s written.

  Maybe part of Brown’s genius – and enigma – is that the Fact page in his books was never meant to be taken literally. Maybe it is all a code or a puzzle that no one has figured out yet. If we look at it from that perspective, then Brown doesn’t need to get his facts right if they are fiction. Because it’s hard to believe that Brown would spend so much time researching each book to get the facts he claims are real so wrong.

  Or is it all just smoke and mirrors? ‘If I have a big beef with Dan Brown it is this,’ Tony Robinson said in the conclusion to his quest. ‘He was lazy. Why did he choose the Masons as a basis for a modern conspiracy thriller? Why didn’t he do what novelists are supposed to do, make up a story and then tell it to us instead of pretending it’s all real?’[294]

  APPENDIX ONE

  * * *

  THE CHARACTERS

  DIGITAL FORTRESS

  Susan Fletcher: The protagonist, she is the National Security Agency’s Head Cryptographer and is engaged to be married to David Becker. She is slender, tall with dark hair, very intelligent and perceptive. She finds herself at the centre of a conspiracy that threatens to bring down the government.

  David Becker: Engaged to Susan Fletcher, Becker is a linguistic expert and is the youngest professor of languages at the university. In the past he’s worked for the NSA and has been asked to again, unknown to Susan. He is walking into a trap.

  Ensei Tankado: A brilliant former NSA employee who creates the unbreakable code called Digital Fortress. The plot of the novel revolves around his design of the code and the attempts that NSA makes to try to break it. He chose to create the code because of moral and ethical grounds but is killed by the hired assassin to get the code-breaker key.

  Commander Trevor Strathmore: He is the Deputy Director of Operations for the NSA and is the main antagonist. Susan Fletcher sees him as a father figure but he is deeply in love with her and he sends Becker to Spain to get him out of the way, so he can have Susan. He is the most complex character of the novel, because he is doing these evil things yet he believes that he is doing them for the right reasons.

  Phil Chartrukian: A technician who works for Systems Security (Sys-Sec) division of the NSA that monitors the computer systems, he is the first one who realizes that something is wrong, but is killed by Strathmore.

  Greg Hale: Another NSA Cryptographer, he has a shady past but is brilliant at his work. He believes that something is wrong but is also a minor antagonist to Susan.

  Leland Fontaine: As Director of NSA Fontaine is the only person that Strathmore answers to and he is the person who ultimately picks up the pieces.

  Hulohot: This character is an assassin hired by Strathmore to kill Becker in Spain and to retrieve the killcode from Tankado and then from Becker after Tankado’s death.

  Midge Milken: A mature and experienced woman she is Fontaine’s internal security analyst and has a friendly sparring relationship with Fontaine’s personal assistant, Chad Brinkerhoff.

  Chad Brinkerhoff: A young thrusting personal assistant to Fontaine who also has an attraction to Milken. He is reluctant to believe that things are not as they seem but soon gets on the bandwagon when Milken provides him with proof.

  Jabba: The large, rotund man, nicknamed ‘Jabba the Hutt’ because of his resemblance to the fictional character in Star Wars, he is the NSA’s senior Systems Security Officer and Chartrukian’s boss.

  Soshi Kuta: She is Jabba’s assistant.

  ANGELS & DEMONS

  Robert Langdon: The main protagonist of the book and a professor of symbology at Harvard University. He is a broad dark-haired man and usually wears chino pants, turtleneck (sweater with a turnover collar) and tweed jacket. His name is Brown’s tribute to ambigram artist John Langdon. He is described as being inquisitive, curious and passionate about puzzles, codes and ancient mysteries to the point of putting himself in danger, but he is overall a sceptic.

  Leonardo Vetra: Vetra is a priest and a scientist working at CERN in Switzerland, researching antimatter. He dreams of merging science and religion together. When he was invited to work at CERN he adopted Vittoria and they moved to Geneva, both becoming physicists. Together they created antimatter which they kept in canisters under tight security that used retina scanners for their identification.

  Vittoria Vetra: In the book, Vittoria is the adopted daughter of Leonardo Vetra and they both work at CERN. Leonardo and Vittoria formed an attachment at the orphanage, with Vetra teaching her while she added warmth and laughter to his life. He adopted her as his daughter and they went to CERN to work. It was her idea to create antimatter. She’s fluent in English, French, Italian and Latin. She is tall, slender, has black hair, large expressive eyes, very athletic with the classic Mediterranean look and in the book is Langdon’s love inte
rest.

  She helps him locate the kidnapped cardinals by working out the clues. The Hassassin (see below) kidnaps her and he takes her to his hideout – the Castle Saint’ Angelo. Langdon finds her bound to a divan and gagged with the Hassassin about to rape her. During the struggle between the Hassassin and Langdon Vittoria frees herself and they push the Hassassin over the balcony to his death. At the end of the book it is implied that Langdon and Vittoria form a sexual relationship while in The Da Vinci Code we learn they were to meet up every six months, but never do. Her father Leonardo and their relationship together are not in the film. She is not kidnapped in the film nor does she have a romantic relationship with Langdon.

  Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Ventresca is the Papal Chamberlain or the Camerlengo during the papal conclave. He is the main antagonist and uses the codename ‘Janus’ to deal with the Hassassin. In the film his name is Patrick McKenna and not Ventresca; this alteration was done to accommodate Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, and the film character McKenna is from Northern Ireland, as opposed to Italy, where the book’s Ventresca is from.

  Raised a devout Catholic by his mother, Maria, he never knew his father because his mother always said he had died before Carlo was born. His mother dies too in an attack by Red Brigade terrorist group on a church in Sicily that he and his mother were visiting. In the film version, the attack takes place in Northern Ireland by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Sole survivor of the blast he is taken into a monastery by a Bishop from Palermo where he lived with the monks but when he reached sixteen he was conscripted into the Italian Army. However, he refused to fire a weapon and so they taught him to fly a helicopter and to use a parachute. After the army Carlo entered a seminary but his life changed when the bishop from Palermo was elected Pope and Carlo became his Camerlengo.